Got a great idea for improving digital journalism? Hurry up and apply to the Knight News Challenge! The media innovation competition plans to give away US$6 million through the challenge to projects focused on ...
Got a great idea for improving digital journalism? Hurry up and apply to the Knight News Challenge! The media innovation competition plans to give away US$6 million through the challenge to projects focused on four key areas: mobile, sustainability, authenticity and community. Applications are due by December 1.

We’re proud to be a supporter of the News Challenge this year, augmenting it with $1 million in prize money as part of our recent grants to non-profit organizations developing new approaches to journalism in the digital age. Now in its fifth year, the News Challenge has funded such projects as Spot.us, which connects journalism projects with public funding and Everyblock, an aggregator of local data like crime stats and restaurant reviews.

The competition benefits more than just the grant winners - News Challenge recipients that develop software also need to open-source it, so that their tools can be adopted by anyone interested in finding new ways to gather and transmit the news, whether they’re a national newspaper or a blogger.

Ushahidi has perhaps become one of the most famous winners (it won in 2009) and is a great example of how a good idea for news can spread as quickly as the news itself. It was started in 2007 by a Harvard law grad as an effort to track the violence surrounding the elections in Kenya (Ushahidi means testimony in Swahili). Using messages sent by 45,000 Kenyans via SMS and the Web, it built a near-instant view of where each part of the country was tilting over those terrifying weeks. Since then, the concept has proved remarkably adaptable. Platforms based on Ushahidi have been built to track this year’s Brazilian election, floods in the U.K. and outbreaks of cholera in Haiti.

So far, international recipients have hailed from India, Latvia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lithuania, England and Russia - but none yet from Australia or New Zealand! If you’re interested in applying - or know of someone you think should apply - visit newschallenge.org to learn more.

Posted by Chris Gaither, Senior Manager for News Industry

Last week, local volunteers in Christchurch and Dunedin invested a day of their time learning how to create 3D models using Google SketchUp. The workshops focused on learning how to geo-model, a process that involves creating 3D models of buildings from photographs for display in ...
Last week, local volunteers in Christchurch and Dunedin invested a day of their time learning how to create 3D models using Google SketchUp. The workshops focused on learning how to geo-model, a process that involves creating 3D models of buildings from photographs for display in Google Earth.

The workshop was led by Christchurch architect and geo-technology expert Jason Mill of ZNO, who was inspired to organise the events following the recent earthquake. As an architect, Jason recognised the value of having a publicly accessible digital model of the city, and has invested considerable time over several years modeling the central business district of Christchurch.

The value of these models took on new meaning when many of the heritage buildings in town disappeared, leaving the community to decide what should stand in their place.

Dunedin was of course unaffected by the earthquake, but given its large number of heritage buildings, the city’s residents decided that they shouldn’t assume that the buildings will be there forever. They suddenly felt a greater sense of urgency around creating a historical record of these buildings.


Historic preservation and city planning are two reasons that many people model their town, but there are numerous other benefits. Local business owners are keen to be represented on the 3D map, enabling virtual tourists another means to locate them on the Internet. Downtown organizations responsible for promoting their city are other beneficiaries. Exploring a destination virtually, whether for business or leisure, is becoming as common as reading a web site.

Google supports these workshops because it aligns with our mission to build a comprehensive atlas of the world online. This atlas is a dynamic, collaborative, open platform for visualizing, sharing, and searching geographic information—whether it’s in your suburb or on the other side of the globe.

By providing free authoring tools like SketchUp and Building Maker, we’re making it easy to introduce 3D buildings to the map. Maps are no longer just 2D static images on paper, they’re living reflections of the local world around us. Everyone has the ability to help shape the map and contribute their local knowledge, experiences and points of view. Adding 3D buildings to the map is just one way to achieve that.

Local residents such as those in Christchurch and Dunedin are doing more than just putting their cities on the map, they’re contributing to an atlas of the world, and becoming the curators of the special places that their cities have to offer.

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

This is a cross-post from the Official Google Blog.

Twenty years ago this month, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. Today, the web is an explosion of pages and apps teeming with videos, photos and interactive content. These powerful new web experiences—such as ...
This is a cross-post from the Official Google Blog.

Twenty years ago this month, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. Today, the web is an explosion of pages and apps teeming with videos, photos and interactive content. These powerful new web experiences—such as “The Wilderness Downtown,” our HTML5 collaboration with the band Arcade Fire—are possible thanks to cutting-edge web technologies that bring all this content to life in the modern browser.

But how do browsers and the web actually work? What is HTML5—or HTML, for that matter? What do terms like “cookies” or “cloud computing” even mean? More practically, how can we keep ourselves safe from security threats like viruses when we’re online?

To help answer these questions, we collaborated with the wonderful illustrator Christoph Niemann to publish an online guidebook called “20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web.” This handy guide is for those of us who’d like to better understand the technologies we use every day.



“20 Things” is written by the Chrome team, and continues our tradition of finding new ways to help explain complex but fascinating ideas about technology. Many of the examples used to illustrate the features of the browser refer back to Chrome.

We built “20 Things” in HTML5 so that we could incorporate features that hearken back to what we love about books—feeling the heft of a book’s cover, flipping a page or even reading under the covers with a flashlight. In fact, once you’ve loaded “20 Things” in the browser, you can disconnect your laptop and continue reading, since this guidebook works offline. As such, this illustrated guidebook is best experienced in Chrome or any up-to-date, HTML5-compliant modern browser.

For things you’ve always wanted to know about the web and browsers but may have been afraid to ask, read on at www.20thingsilearned.com (or, you can use the handy shortened URL at goo.gl/20things). If you find “20 Things” informative, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family!

Posted by Min Li Chan, Product Marketing Manager, Google Chrome

With the summer holidays coming up, I’m looking forward to picnics, visiting cafes and of course, road trips. My family and I will be enjoying a scenic drive from Sydney to Hobart ...

With the summer holidays coming up, I’m looking forward to picnics, visiting cafes and of course, road trips. My family and I will be enjoying a scenic drive from Sydney to Hobart. It’s a nice, long distance trip and of course, getting there is half the fun. Along the way, there are all sorts of places to explore: parks, restaurants and hotels in Melbourne. And of course everyone needs a few pit stops, especially with two small kids.

Today, we’re launching Google Maps Navigation in Australia and New Zealand, which means getting to Hobart this year (and exploring along the way) just got a lot easier. Google Maps Navigation is a feature of Google Maps for Mobile that provides voice-guided turn by turn directions in real time. That means that instead of printing out your directions in advance, or having your co-pilot read aloud from list of directions, you can use your Android smartphone to guide you there directly.

Some of you may have already taken advantage of driving directions in Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps Navigation builds on that by combining the best of Google Maps for mobile, Google Search, and a host of unique capabilities only available on smartphones, like GPS, compass, text-to-speech technology, a permanent Internet connection, and the ability to search by voice. How?
  • Search instead of type. Maps Navigation is integrated with Google Search, as well as Google Voice Search. That means you don’t need to know your destination’s exact address, or even its name. You can search instead: try saying “museum Wellington” instead of “Museum of New Zealand”
  • See where you’re going. You don’t haveto download imagery or data or store it on your phone. It’s always connected to the Internet, which means you can access satellite views of your route or preview your destination in Street View.
  • Explore along the way. Once you’re on your route, you can search for anything along your route: petrol stations stations, restaurants, museums, hotels, parks, anything you can think of. Some common searches, like petrol stations, are built in. Because Google Maps Navigation is integrated with Google Search, you can search your surroundings just as easily as you search the Internet.
  • Seamlessly in sync. Simply sign in to Google Maps on your desktop, click the star next to any result on maps.google.co.nz and that place will automatically be starred on your phone, making it easy to remember (and navigate to!).

Google Maps Navigation is available for smartphones running Android 1.6 and later in both Australia and New Zealand. To try it out, go to Android Market and download Google Maps.


We’re also excited to announce walking navigation too to help you explore your destination on foot. Your phone will vibrate when you need to make a turn. You can even turn off voice guidance and just use these notifications while soaking in the sights and sounds around you. Use it like a virtual compass with satellite imagery to look ahead or to help pick out landmarks along the way.

As for me, I’m looking forward to our family trip to Hobart even more, now that I have one less thing to worry about, and more time to spend playing “I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with...”

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager
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AdWords, our online advertising program, is ten years old and we want to mark the birthday celebration in the right way - by honouring and applauding the advertisers large and small who have reached new customers online, grown their business success and made AdWords what it is today.
AdWords, our online advertising program, is ten years old and we want to mark the birthday celebration in the right way - by honouring and applauding the advertisers large and small who have reached new customers online, grown their business success and made AdWords what it is today.

In December, we’ll publish a global map of businesses sharing their stories and we’d love to feature the stories of Aussie and Kiwi businesses. Are you a surf shop in Byron? A NZ wine exporter? We’d love to hear your story. You can take part by creating a (3 minute or less) YouTube video or written piece (750 characters or less) telling us your story: who you are, what your business is about, how it’s grown, and the role AdWords has played in your success.

Here’s the story of fabulous Sydney entrepreneurs Shoes of Prey:



You can learn more and see submission instructions at youtube.com/adwords10

Posted by Lucinda Barlow, Head of Marketing, Google Australia and New Zealand

We know that in times of crisis, it's especially important for you to find the crucial information you're looking for—and find it fast. Today we've started displaying some combination of special search results for searches in New Zealand around poisoning and suicide that point to emergency information.
We know that in times of crisis, it's especially important for you to find the crucial information you're looking for—and find it fast. Today we've started displaying some combination of special search results for searches in New Zealand around poisoning and suicide that point to emergency information.

This effort started last year when I received an email from a mother in the U.S. who had trouble finding the phone number for the poisoning hotline after her daughter accidentally ingested something potentially poisonous (fortunately, her daughter was fine). As a result, people in the U.S. performing various searches including "poison control" began to see a special result displaying the national phone number for the American Association of Poison Control Centers last autumn.

Soon after we added poison control information to search results, we heard from Googlers whose lives had been affected by suicide and who thought that suicide prevention could be another case for a special search result. In April we began prominently displaying the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at the top of the results page for certain search queries in the U.S. Since then, our friends at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have reported a 9 percent increase in legitimate calls to its hotline.

So, following positive feedback from consumers and our hotline partners, we decided to expand the poison control and suicide prevention special search results beyond the U.S - including to New Zealand. We looked for hotlines that are available nationally and 24/7.

From today, in New Zealand, search queries related to suicide will return the result for the hotline number of LifeLine New Zealand, and those related to poisoning will show the hotline number for the New Zealand National Poisons Centre.




An emergency is stressful enough. We hope this small step helps connect people with the information they need immediately.

Posted by Roni Zeiger, MD, Chief Health Strategist

One of the exciting challenges of working on Maps at Google is that the physical world is constantly changing, and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour. At the same time, we are fortunate to have a large and active community of users who want to share detailed information about the places they live, work, and travel to.
One of the exciting challenges of working on Maps at Google is that the physical world is constantly changing, and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour. At the same time, we are fortunate to have a large and active community of users who want to share detailed information about the places they live, work, and travel to.

So, as part of our ongoing commitment to provide the richest, most up-to-date, and accurate maps possible, we continuously explore ways to integrate new information into Google Maps. Two years ago, we began allowing you to move map markers to improve address precision and since early last year, you've been able to add locations.

You may notice that New Zealand looks a bit different in Google Maps -- more detailed outlines of prominent buildings were probably a giveaway. This change is being rolled out over the next couple of days.

The best part about these changes is that we've been able to add a lot of new, detailed information to Google Maps -- information that helps people better explore and get around the real world. For example, university students will be pleased to see maps of campuses with more detailed internal roads and building outlines.

So where do you fit into this? Well, we've found our users are a great source of information about the world, so we've added a new tool to Google Maps in New Zealand that lets you communicate directly with us about any updates that you think need to be made to our maps.

You'll find this "Report a Problem" link on the bottom right of Google Maps (you can also find it by right-clicking on the map). Has that new freeway finally opened up? Do we have an outdated name for your local park? Did we tell you driving directions that could be improved upon? Tell us! Once we've received your edit or suggestion we'll confirm it with other users, data sources, or imagery. We hope to resolve each edit within a couple of months. If you submit your email address, we'll even keep you posted on our progress. The video below walks you through the process, or learn more here:



We're constantly working on making sure Google Maps is up-to-date, accurate, and includes the information that you care about most. Your edits and feedback will not only help us achieve this goal, but will help everyone get around town better and explore the world.

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager

For Kiwis, October was a month of ghosts, hobbits, horses and Henrys according to the most popular searches on google.co.nz last month.

A spike in Paul Henry-related searches following his resignation from TVNZ saw him feature on both the fastest rising web searches and fastest rising news searches lists. Sheila Dikshit, the Indian politician at the centre of the Henry saga, was also a popular search term during October – featuring at number three in the fastest rising news searches.

‘Halloween’ and ‘Melbourne Cup’ are popular search terms every October, so it’s no surprise to see them making an appearance in October’s top searches. Also top of mind were ‘Hobbit’, ‘Election Results’ and ‘Silver Ferns’, reflecting the other big current affairs stories dominating the headlines throughout the month.

As the end of the year is quickly sneaking up, we’ll soon be starting to put together the top Google searches of 2010. These lists always provide an intriguing insight into what’s been on the minds of Kiwis throughout the year so we look forward to sharing them with you!

NZ’s fastest rising web searches, October
1. Halloween
2. www.fishforprizes.co.nz
3. Commonwealth Games 2010
4. Commonwealth Games
5. Paul Henry

NZ’s fastest rising web searches, last 7 days
1. Auckland Marathon
2. Melbourne Cup 2010
3. Melbourne Cup
4. Leonard Cohen
5. Halloween

NZ’s fastest rising news searches, October
1. Election results
2. Paul Henry
3. Sheila Dikshit
4. Silver Ferns
5. Hobbit

For Kiwis, October was a month of ghosts, hobbits, horses and Henrys according to the most popular searches on google.co.nz last month.

A spike in Paul Henry-related searches following his resignation from TVNZ saw him feature on both the fastest rising web searches and fastest rising news searches lists. Sheila Dikshit, the Indian politician at the centre of the Henry saga, was also a popular search term during October – featuring at number three in the fastest rising news searches.

‘Halloween’ and ‘Melbourne Cup’ are popular search terms every October, so it’s no surprise to see them making an appearance in October’s top searches. Also top of mind were ‘Hobbit’, ‘Election Results’ and ‘Silver Ferns’, reflecting the other big current affairs stories dominating the headlines throughout the month.

As the end of the year is quickly sneaking up, we’ll soon be starting to put together the top Google searches of 2010. These lists always provide an intriguing insight into what’s been on the minds of Kiwis throughout the year so we look forward to sharing them with you!

NZ’s fastest rising web searches, October
1. Halloween
2. www.fishforprizes.co.nz
3. Commonwealth Games 2010
4. Commonwealth Games
5. Paul Henry

NZ’s fastest rising web searches, last 7 days
1. Auckland Marathon
2. Melbourne Cup 2010
3. Melbourne Cup
4. Leonard Cohen
5. Halloween

NZ’s fastest rising news searches, October
1. Election results
2. Paul Henry
3. Sheila Dikshit
4. Silver Ferns
5. Hobbit

Worldwide fastest rising news searches, October
1. Cliff Lee
2. Sarah Scazzie
3. Mortgage and foreclosures
4. Jon Stewart
5. Brett Favre

Worldwide fastest rising news searches, last 7 days

1. Charlie Sheen
2. Kirchner
3. Tsunami
4. Jon Stewart
5. Merapi

Posted by Corri McKenzie, Google NZ